Joseph
Hezkiah Gruver is the town's namesake. Joseph and son Lawrence established a ranch
in the area around 1907. Gruver became a center for wheat and small-grain farming
even before the railroad arrived (1929). A post office was granted in 1927, and
the school two years later. The 1930 population was 650, but the Great Depression
and WWII took a toll. The
post war population declined to just 350. The population increased to over 800
by the mid 1950s and 1,555 by the late 1960s. The town reached its population
high-water mark in 1988 with 1,199 citizens, but it has since decreased to the
present 1,162.